A Test Drive to Chicago by David J. Suvak

Author:David J. Suvak [Suvak, David J.]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781956096156
Publisher: Agar Publishing
Published: 2021-09-13T10:19:27+00:00

Chapter

14

Drenched on Maryland Heights

I thoroughly enjoyed that second Maryland summer with a newfound social life. It was very different from the solitary first summer of the battlefield and its life-shattering contemplation.

I was the first to move into the seasonal quarters that summer, so I picked the room I used the year before, the biggest. It was all nice and quiet again in my five-bedroom home, but a week later, I had my first roommate since my Walsh days. He was an older fella, a bit plumb with gray and white hair and a walrus mustache. Divorced and in his fifties, I thought Gill was a nice normal guy who would be a nice quiet roommate.

However, it did not take long for me to get “Gilled,” as the name of this new torture was about to be given. You see, getting “Gilled” was when someone made the mistake of starting a conversation with Gill or if Gill started the conversation with you. Once Gill started talking, he would not stop! He kept talking and talking and talking.

The first couple times I got “Gilled,” I was polite. He was new and my housemate. I had to live with this guy for the next six months, so I went out of my way to establish a cordial relationship. But, once you get “Gilled” a few times, you will lose your patience, especially when it lasts thirty or forty minutes.

To top it all off, the conversation material was always drop-dead boring. His monotone voice didn’t help things. I tried to give him hints in the midst of getting “Gilled” by walking away, but he kept following me even as I made my way to the bathroom or my bedroom.

Soon, I had to develop techniques to avoid him. Mainly, I would study his evening routines. I’d use the kitchen before he would usually eat. If I heard him make his way down the stairs, I’d begin my preplanned arrangements to retreat upstairs. If he made his way to the kitchen via the living room from the stairs, I’d approach the stairs via the dining room—pretty smart, huh?

There were more quirky habits of Gill that were not noticed until the summer dragged on and other housemates had arrived and settled in. Gill had a habit of collecting newspapers. His car was full of them. There was absolutely nowhere to sit in that car except in the driver’s seat. His back seats were full, from the floor to the back headrest, with the New York Times, the Baltimore Sun, the Washington Post, the Harrisburg Times, the Philadelphia Inquirer, plus whatever the newspapers of nearby Hagerstown and Frederick, Maryland, and Martinsburg West Virginia, were called.

Space in his car got so bad that newspapers were spilling over from the passengers’ floor into the driver’s floor. Perhaps it was his clever scheme of telling people, “Nope, can’t give you a lift. I don’t have the room.”

But, soon, we found out this was not so for his car was not the only place where he kept his beloved newspapers.

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